The Wedding Event: Find Your Happily Ever After

To celebrate The Wedding Event on Gilt, we’re sharing the happily-ever-after stories of three real-life couples–get inspired by their beautiful weddings, then shop everything you need for your own perfect day.

“We’re not the type of girls who had like, a binder we pulled out with a complete vision for the day,” Meghan Sturges says of planning her wedding to Shannon Knapp. “In a same sex marriage, you often have two people who have never thought about what a wedding would look like. But because we didn’t have a vision of what it would be, the day exceeded our every expectation. We almost downplayed it too much. We were overwhelmed on the final day.” They exchanged vows at My Moon in Brooklyn, where the vibe was vintage New York–complete with a checkered cab–and they wore dresses they selected together. “We had to go together because we could have ended up in the same dress!” Meghan says. “Plus my validation was important to her, and vice versa.” But in the end, the day was about more than just each other’s encouragement–“We had huge support from our families, and that meant everything.”

What does a bride wear when her nuptials are held on a family-owned plot of land in northern Wisconsin, “out in the middle of nowhere,” as Dani Schafer refers to her wedding venue? “I knew I couldn’t pull off too much sparkle or glitz in that setting, so I chose to keep things natural.” She went for a flowing BHLDN gown with one shoulder strap (and yes, it’s available in our sale!), Manolo Blahnik wedges she could wear in the grass, and a headpiece of vintage silk flowers she made herself, on the morning of her wedding. “I’m an artist, so I needed to keep my hands busy!” she says. Dani paints and sculpts, while her now-husband, Troy, is a musician, so their combined creative spirit was felt in every aspect of the wedding, including her most memorable moment: “We did a song together as part of our vows. We’re huge George Harrison fans, so we sang a Bob Dylan song that he covered–‘If Not For You.’ It really set the tone for the whole wedding.”

While the mention of Seattle’s Fairmont Olympic Hotel may get some a little hot and bothered–it was, after all, the backdrop for some steamy scenes in 50 Shades of Grey–for Jeff and Lesley Grosvenor, it’s a place rich with family history. They said their vows there in June of 2010, 46 years after her grandparents did the very same thing. They also stood under a chuppah made of 200 gardenias, which was later disassembled so each guest could take one of the flowers home, floating in a glass jar. “We wanted to bring a very warm feeling to the wedding day,” Lesley said, “and incorporate as much emphasis on family as we could. The women in my family have always been given gardenias, so it was really special to share that with our guests.”

Feeling inspired by these real couples? Find everything you need–whether you’re the bride, the groom, or just a guest–at The Wedding Event, today at noon.